A film worth seeing, and celebrating!

Filmmaker Evan Briggs has noticed how America's seniors are locked away out of sight after a certain age. "Why are we OK with that?" she asked. Then she learned there was a pre-school in a retirement home in West Seattle, Washington. During the 2012-13 school year, she filmed three days a week at the intergenerational learning center for children ages 6 weeks to 6 years inside Providence Mt. St. Vincent, a retirement home for 400 adults. Her feature film, "Present Perfect," captures how it feels to grow up, and grow old, in America.

                                                                                                                                Evan Briggs
Briggs observes that the place where children and seniors overlap in always the present. "They've arrived at that place from either having an abundance of life experience or no life experience," she says. The elderly get a renewed sense of self-worth, and the children get unconditional love from doting residents, who do a "complete transformation" in the presence of children. "Sometimes they seemed half-alive," said Briggs, "but as soon as the kids walk in for art or music, the residents come alive." If you can spare four minutes, please watch the trailer for "Present Perfect," linked here. You'll never forget it.  https://vimeo.com/129831958

Ben Moser keeps his promise

Ben Moser first noticed Mary Lapkowicz in second grade. She has Down syndrome, but that made no difference to him. He liked her anyway. Mary's brother Tom remembers, "A lot of grade school kids might have stayed away from Mary or thought she was weird, but not Ben." His fourth grade teacher said, "Ben was always the energetic kid in class who looked out for Mary and made sure she was included in all activities." They were in the same class for second, third and fourth grade, and fourth grade is when Ben made a promise. When they were old enough, he'd take her to the prom.

Now fast-forward seven busy years. They aren't in the same class anymore. Not even in the same high school. Ben's a junior now, and a star quarterback on his school's football team. One night he played a team from Mary's school. He saw her in the stands, and remembered his promise,  and invited her to their junior prom. When the day arrived, they both got all dressed up and went to the prom at Mary's Central Dauphin High School. Guess who came to see them off? Their fourth grade teacher, who says she has felt "truly blessed" to watch Ben and Mary over the years. Mary's brother added, "Ben has put a smile on Mary's face, and restored my faith in humanity."

Husband makes impossible dream come true

Micah Faris has heard all of his wife Jennifer's childhood camp stories. How her Dad bought an Apache camper and took the family on wonderful trips. All her fondest childhood memories happened in that camper, but when her Dad was killed in an accident, the family gave the camper away and it was later sold. Now fast forward 15 years. Micah and Jennifer have little kids of their own, and would love to take them camping. Of course it could never be the same as with her Dad, since the camper is long gone, probably in a junkyard by now. But Micah wonders if there's any possible way to locate the old rig and give it a new life with Jennifer and their kids.

Jennifer's Dad (upper left) when he took her camping. And Jennifer today.

Well, this story has a happy ending, but you'll never believe how it happened. Was it just a lucky coincidence, or is Jennifer's Dad smiling down from heaven? To find out, set aside eight short minutes and enjoy the video linked here, where Micah reveals the amazing details.  www.youtube.com/watch?v=OmQfFxiZesU

"Becuz I Care"

Ten-year-old Leah Nelson lives in West Sacramento, California, and she's planning to change the world, one bracelet at a time. She's launched a program called "Becuz I Care" which encourages folks to treat each other kindly. And she hopes her effort to spread good deeds will go viral.

                                                                                              becuzicareII/Twitter
Her social experiment is simple. Do something nice for someone else, and then seal the deal with a bracelet she will provide. Each bracelet is passed along from one person to another as each does a good deed. But that's not all. She asks anyone who does a good deed and passes along her bracelet to share the story with her  on Twitter by tagging @BecuzICare11 or using the hashtag #BecuzICare11. Why? "I want the world to be a better place," she says.

It flew through the air with the greatest of ease

A sick man was taken to a hospital in Bode, Norway, recently. He needed an ECMO machine which supports the heart and lungs. Without this machine, he would die in a matter of hours. The nearest machine was at a hospital in Trondheim, 280 miles away, a ten-hour journey by car. There seemed to be no hope, until doctors remembered there's an air force base near Trondheim. They called the base and learned an F-16 fighter jet like the one shown here was available to transport the life-saving machine.

                                                                                                                    Getty Images
The swift action of the Air Force was praised by doctors, who said, "It's very rare we have to borrow equipment on such short notice from another hospital." How fast was the delivery? "Usually we spend about 35 minutes in the air," said Lt. Col. Borge Kkeppe, leader of 338 Squadron, "but because of the special cargo, the pilot gave a little extra, so he was there in less than 25 minutes." Forty minutes after the first call asking for help, the medical equipment had arrived.

A reader in the midwest offers today's Crumb

It seemed like a small thing at the time, but it meant a lot of Coty Vincent, a young mother from Tulsa, Oklahoma. She and her twin sons had just been victims of a hit-and-run-collision. She needed transportation so she stopped by Enterprise Rent-A-Car at 11th St. and Lewis Ave. in Tulsa. One of her twins was in a stroller, but she had to hold the other in her arms while she tried to fill out the paperwork, until the employee helping her (John, shown below) offered to hold her son while she completed the application. John has a twin sister, so he understands twins. Coty was so touched by this kindness that she took this photo and posted it on her Facebook page with the wish that everyone would be like John.

                                                                             Coty Vincent / Facebook
When the Enterprise social media team saw her post, they reached out and put Coty in touch with corporate officials. Within hours, Enterprise announced it would reward John for his outstanding customer service, and also purchase a double stroller for Coty's twins. "We were so moved by Coty's Facebook post that we wanted to do something special for her," said a company official. Coty hopes people recognize that no act of kindness is too small. "I think this world would be a much better place with small acts of kindness that go so far," she said.

700 crumbs all prove the same things

Since it began in July, 2014, this blog has found and shared over 700 "crumbs of comfort," viewed over 25,000 times by readers in 12 nations. If you're a regular reader, you know each crumb of good news proclaims a hidden message. And here's what we've learned so far.